Leadership by independence and excellence: lessons from The Fountainhead

By Lorenzo Bona

Rereading a Timeless Classic

Recently, I found myself rereading Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. Beyond its literary power, the novel offers insights that remain strikingly fresh – despite having been first published in 1943 – and that may extend beyond literature into organizational life. It can be read as a hymn to individual freedom and as an exaltation of love, understood not as comfort, approval, or need, but as the recognition and admiration of competence, independence, and creativity.

A Randian View of Leadership

In this respect, the novel advances a number of original and thought-provoking ideas. Among them, those shaping what could be seen as a largely unconventional view of leadership appear particularly relevant.

For example, in contrast to mainstream leadership conceptualizations that often emphasize consensus, collaboration, or emotional engagement, Rand seems to portray leadership as the pursuit of excellence and independence, inspiring commitment through demonstrated competence and vision. In her view, it is less about managing consensus or providing emotional reassurance, and more about setting clear standards, embodying values, and influencing others through excellence.

This perspective is perhaps illustrated with particular force in the words Rand places in the mouth of one of the novel’s central heroic characters:

“Thousands of years ago, the first man discovered how to make fire. He was probably burned at the stake he had taught his brothers to light… But thereafter men had fire to keep them warm, to cook their food, to light their caves… Centuries later, the first man invented the wheel… Throughout the centuries there were men who took first steps down new roads armed with nothing but their own vision… Every great new thought was opposed… But the men of unborrowed vision went ahead. They fought, they suffered, and they paid. But they won.”

Insights: Randian Guiding Principles for Leadership

While this view of leadership and innovation seems to significantly underplay the importance of collaboration, empathy, and institutional constraints in real organizations, it nonetheless offers a useful contribution to contemporary debates on leadership.

In other words, what may appear as a Randian perspective on leadership can be read as an invitation to consider leadership as a practice of influence and exemplary behavior that broadly reflects three guiding principles:

a) Earn authority through demonstrated competence, not position;
b) Cultivate autonomy and independent judgment, avoiding excessive dependency;
c) Attract alignment around goals through strong commitment to clear visions and standards of excellence, rather than seeking universal approval.